Writing Meme Day 13

[erastes]

13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?

I have to say Regency, but I never want to be type-cast as “oh, that Erastes wot writes gay Regency” – It’s my comfort zone, and one that I can just write a story without too much research. I know the fashions, the hair, the clubs, the geography of London etc etc but obviously I look up loads of other things as I encounter them.  People might think that the Regency is a bit restrictive, but it’s not, really.  All you need to do is chuck a spanner in the works by (as Dee and Devon did so brilliantly recently with their “Gentlemen and the Rogue) having a class conflict. There are so many ways you can play with the genre, and the gay historical angle gives you a lot of scope to play with it.

However, I will not be writing only Regency because I love to explore other cultures and other eras (as much as it drives me bonkers with the research, like it is now with the WIP). But I probably shall (as Vetinari said of arsenic) return to it like an old friend from time to time. (I wanted to write something called “The Year without a Summer” as a sequel to Frost Fair by I’ve been pipped to the post on that!

Comments

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Huh. I didn't even think of Regency AS a culture; I thought of it as a time period. I thought of culture as being national, or even planetary--Hispanic culture, Japanese culture, the culture of Ankh-Morpork, the culture of the Time Lords of Gallifrey.

I didn't understand that question, to be honest.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's definitely a culture: "The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution, organization or group"

Which certainly sums up "the ton" of Regency England - the aristocracy at least.

I have managed to get online at Dad's!

[gs-wiley.livejournal.com]

Hey, just call it "A Year Without Summer" or "Year Without a Summer" or something and it'll be fine. I certainly don't mind. I've seriously read about three books called "Adam and Ee and Pinch Me", in genres as diverse as children's fiction and adult suspense.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Hee! true. Or "A Summer without a Summer"

:)

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

I suppose something subYeatsean such as 'the Isle of Summerfree' wouldn't work?

[tiggothy.livejournal.com]

"The Summer That Wasn't"?
or "The Year We Moved To Wales" ;-)